I forgot to mention the old flames I had were,red ,orange and white .they looked good at the time,amd still do on some applications,but thet would not fit this one, Thanhs again Tocson Jay ,and 69 widetrack.

I will let someone more experienced get deeper into this technique. I have not done many of this style... and those have been on bikes, so they are much smaller.

I can tell you that they are usually done "freehand" using stencils and airbrush.

I haven't delved into it at all and never done a single thing so I am just talking out my butt from what I have seen at shows and on the net but it was blown away that apparently just a couple of stencils like this is all the guy will use. Turning it back and forth using all the sides to change what he wants to create right?

I will let someone more experienced get deeper into this technique. I have not done many of this style... and those have been on bikes, so they are much smaller.

I can tell you that they are usually done "freehand" using stencils and airbrush.

I have just started doing these...am I good at it? Well compared to the first ones I tried....they are getting better...I am still working at getting all my stencils made and duplicates of the ones that I like.

Your right Jay, they are done with an airbrush, freehand and stencils. The stencils are hand held and moved at different angles overlapping only part of the previous different stenciled flame. I'm still making up my different stencils and duplicating the ones that work well. The part I'm finding difficult is getting the colors looking right. I did a test panel with blue flames, all the same color, went back over it when I was done with different darker shades of blue and white through my airbrush and shaded the sides of the predominant flames...that worked and it looked OK. I do need more practice...this is art.

If someone has done these and can offer any tips, I'm all ears.

Painted Jester, here's one set of flames that one side isn't going to be like the other...guaranteed.

I haven't delved into it at all and never done a single thing so I am just talking out my butt from what I have seen at shows and on the net but it was blown away that apparently just a couple of stencils like this is all the guy will use. Turning it back and forth using all the sides to change what he wants to create right?

Brian

As I mentioned, I'm making my own...there are a number of different shapes in what you've posted and is a great example of how turning them around and using only part of the stencil, overlapping what you just painted off of another stencil will give you that firery effect.

I've got about a dozen stencils that I've been playing with that work and have made duplicates of...maybe I should try and incorporate them all into 3 or 4 stencils...make things a lot easier.

Brian, Don't worry about the experience. You already helped anyone wanting to try it by showing the stencil shapes.

I like to be able to plan and then guarantee the pattern will satisfy me... so the thought of just "winging it" bothers me.

Here is one of my few efforts, just to show that you can change things up, instead of following other's styles. I had seen the stencils online, so I cut my own design, then did this more wind-blown version of "flames coming out of vents".

P.S. I also cut the fender shape, but it cracked from vibration, so later we had to weld some supports on the inside, and repair the paint. Live and learn! :-)

My brother copied one of the Tv auto programs , The Guy in Wa that does what they call real flames, lots of passes with stensils curved masks and different tints, colors.. He did a black helicopter, the pilot was landing in a field behind a restaurant for breakfast and the neighbors called 911, they thought it was on fire.

If we are going to talk about graphic art... we need to talk about color combinations! This would apply when deciding what color to make the flames on your own car... choosing a two-tone... how to choose a pinstripe color... or even what color lettering would work best.

This is really "art lessons 101".

As a new custom painter in the '70s... I thought I needed to do things different than what had been done before. I intentionally used colors that I had been taught were not "complimentary" to each other. At first I liked the results, since they were unusual and unexpected.

After about 10 years, I was looking back at my own work, and decided that I did not think the color combos had worked as well as they should. I decided to "cave", and started using the color wheel to pick my combinations.

I liked the results better, and it wasn't long before I had a couple different people tell me.....

....."You use color SO well!" :-o Ooops!

I was shocked to find that following-the-rules could get the desired result from other enthusiasts!

Below is a color wheel. The rule is that opposite colors compliment each other.

For example blue and orange are "compliments". It's funny how the orange (being called a "hot color") makes the blue look "cooler", and of course the other way around. The orange looks even hotter, because it is next to the blue (a "cool" color)!

In other words, all of the things that are strong in a color, are intensified by the opposite color's contasts.

In my work, I have found that it doesn't have to be the exact opposite... but just close to it. A medium-blue would be complimented pretty well by an orange... or a yellow-orange... or a red-orange.

I will add two other important rules about color combos. These will always give a pleasant combination... though not as exciting as "complimentary colors".

(1) It is always okay to use a "neutral color". These are colors with very little personality. They will always harmonize with any colors from the color wheel.

Since it is the same color... but a different shade... it will always harmonize with it.

One other tip: If you have a very small bit of color (like pinstripes), and you want it to show well, use colors that are lighter/brighter... or a more intense shade of a complimentary color. That way they will still be noticable next to a few "acres" of your main color.

If we are going to talk about graphic art... we need to talk about color combinations! This would apply when deciding what color to make the flames on your own car... choosing a two-tone... how to choose a pinstripe color... or even what color lettering would work best.

This is really "art lessons 101".

As a new custom painter in the '70s... I thought I needed to do things different than what had been done before. I intentionally used colors that I had been taught were not "complimentary" to each other. At first I liked the results, since they were unusual and unexpected.

After about 10 years, I was looking back at my own work, and decided that I did not think the color combos had worked as well as they should. I decided to "cave", and started using the color wheel to pick my combinations.

I liked the results better, and it wasn't long before I had a couple different people tell me.....

....."You use color SO well!" :-o Ooops!

I was shocked to find that following-the-rules could get the desired result from other enthusiasts!

Below is a color wheel. The rule is that opposite colors compliment each other.

For example blue and orange are "compliments". It's funny how the orange (being called a "hot color") makes the blue look "cooler", and of course the other way around. The orange looks even hotter, because it is next to the blue (a "cool" color)!

In other words, all of the things that are strong in a color, are intensified by the opposite color's contasts.

In my work, I have found that it doesn't have to be the exact opposite... but just close to it. A medium-blue would be complimented pretty well by an orange... or a yellow-orange... or a red-orange.

I will add two other important rules about color combos. These will always give a pleasant combination... though not as exciting as "complimentary colors".

(1) It is always okay to use a "neutral color". These are colors with very little personality. They will always harmonize with any colors from the color wheel.

Since it is the same color... but a different shade... it will always harmonize with it.

One other tip: If you have a very small bit of color (like pinstripes), and you want it to show well, use colors that are lighter/brighter... or a more intense shade of a complimentary color. That way they will still be noticable next to a few "acres" of your main color.

I have never heard this and it's darn interesting. Being my "art eduction" was drawing on school desks (more on this in another post). It's funny because in color matching you are told not to cross the color wheel but to go in that direction around the wheel. If you go across the wheel you "kill" the color you are going across from and that is exactly what I find to be the way to match, if it's too green you put a drip of red and wham, that green is toned down. I guess because it's such a dramatic change that so little paint is of that toner is needed that they say don't do it. It has always worked every well for me.

As I said earlier I don't have much to offer but I do have this. The very basic of drawing flames is about all I have to offer. But when we are talking about "basics" there is nothing more basic than drawing the flames right? Here you go.

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